Today marks 150 years of the Shipping Forecast – and that’s a reason for celebration whether you’re a sailor or just a casual radio listener, says Caroline Crampton

Every six hours a weather forecaster at the Met Office sits down to write a very precise script. To make the Shipping Forecast, reams of meteorological data must be compressed into just 350 words, because that is all there is time to read in the nine minutes of live radio allotted to it.

None of this process is automated. Although computers are a valuable tool for weather calculations, no robot has yet been trusted with the job of turning weather predictions into the strange, beautiful prose poem that makes up the forecast.

Today marks 150 years of uninterrupted Shipping Forecasts. It was conceived by the founder of the Met Office, Robert FitzRoy, after a dreadful storm hit the Irish Sea on 25 October 1859. Over 800 people were killed, 133 ships were lost and a further 90 damaged.

After this disaster, FitzRoy began to create predictions for a national storm warning system, determined that such a tragedy would be averted in future. He faced opposition from the scientific establishment, which doubted the accuracy of his predictions. But the public demand for forecasts was strong and in 1867 the Shipping Forecast became a fixed feature of British maritime navigation.

In 1925, the forecast moved to BBC radio, where it has remained since. It is transmitted four times a day via a combination of FM and long-wave frequencies. It serves as punctuation for the BBC Radio 4 schedule, and for the lives of many listeners. The 00:48 broadcast is there for falling asleep, and the 05:20 for waking up.

For 50 years, the Shipping Forecast has been preceded by a short piece of music – an orchestral waltz titled “Sailing By”. Although many listeners have a nostalgic attachment to it (in the 1990s the BBC tried to remove it, and there was a national outcry), it also serves a practical purpose.

As sailors at sea try to tune in, they will know that they have hit the right station when the swooping strings of “Sailing By”. These days, forecasts can be delivered to ships around the clock by satellite internet connections, but the radio broadcast is still vital for navigation. Complex electrical equipment can fail, but all you need to hear the Shipping Forecast is a working radio.

BBC announcers read the forecast live, carefully timing their delivery against the clock. The resulting broadcast, with its clipped diction and the rhythmic delivery of those prescribed phrases – “south-easterly four or five, occasionally six at first, mainly fair, good” – has become part of Britain’s identity as an eccentric maritime nation. An excerpt of the Shipping Forecast was even used in Danny Boyle’s 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

Even the names for the 31 weather areas the forecast uses have a kind of music to them. Rockall, Malin, German Bight, Lundy, South Utsire – for non-sailors, they sound otherworldly, yet also familiar. The forecast is a reminder that we live on an island, surrounded by potentially treacherous seas. It evokes images of small boats, battling through the waves far offshore. Yet its very regularity is reassuring. There may be a gale in Viking, Fair Isle and Cromarty, but we can listen at home in the warm and dry.

As a result, the Shipping Forecast is deeply embedded in British culture. Bands including Blur, Radiohead and The Prodigy have all quoted it in their lyrics, and it is much parodied on radio comedy shows such as Dead Ringers. Over 150 years, the Shipping Forecast has become part of our language.

The forecast has a listenership far larger than just those at sea who need a weather update (although that is a vital audience – the former BBC announcer Charlotte Green used to get Valentines from fisherman who enjoyed her reading). Whether they are rising early or staying up late, hundreds of thousands of people tune in to hear the forecast’s hypnotic recitation of upcoming weather events. It’s a kind of lullaby, or a catechism, or even a prayer, sent out to the unseen waves.

iNews

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